


For Colin

by OssaCordis



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Minor Character(s), Muggle Life, Muggles, POV Second Person, Parenthood, Second War with Voldemort, death of a child
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 21:44:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12826725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OssaCordis/pseuds/OssaCordis
Summary: A brief reflection on the futility of war from the point of view of Mr Creevey.Of course you expect the worst. And of course, you hope and pray and beg God for the best.





	For Colin

It is difficult to understand the _why_ , let alone _who_ or _how_.

There is a war. That much is clear. But when the photographs in the paper do not move for you, and the Wizarding Wireless Network just sounds like static, it is difficult for you to believe that somewhere out there, people are dying. You were whisked away at the very beginning with your sons, hidden by what you’ve been told is a secret network, protected from something vague and dark.

You are there almost a year, miscellaneous faces living in an obscure house in a vast city far from home. Your sons fret, missing school and friends and magic itself. Living lives amongst the “Muggles” has become dull for them. They desperately wait for any snatch of information, any faint scrap of knowledge about the wizarding world and the war.

One warm evening, as you return home from the shops, you find your youngest son bound and gagged, and the eldest missing. You run to him, untie him, ask a thousand panicked questions.

“He got the call! He said it was happening at Hogwarts, and I’m too young, and too inexperienced, and he wouldn’t let me go!” The youngest weeps bitterly because he cannot join in the fight, but you are here now and you won’t let him leave. You wouldn’t have let the eldest go, either, if you had been there to stop him.

The worry eats through you like acid. You are helpless to do anything; you have no way of knowing what is happening, no way of finding where this battle is. The youngest flips through the dial of the radio, frantic and desperate for news, though it doesn’t matter how hard he tries to listen in, since he informs you that all the wizarding airwaves are dead.

Anything could happen. Of course you expect the worst. And of course, you hope and pray and beg God for the best.

That night, all is silent. You toss and turn in bed, not sleeping, just waiting for the sound of the front door opening and a voice calling out, “I’m home!”

The voice never comes.

A solemn man in bloodstained, dusty, dark blue robes appears late the next afternoon. “We won. Voldemort is dead. You are free to live your lives now as you wish.”

Your youngest son whoops in joy, and for a brief second, you allow yourself to think this is where your eldest son has been: celebrating. But the joy of the man’s announcement does not quite reach his eyes.

“But I am sorry to say that the provisional Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, has sent me to inform you that your son Colin is dead. By _Avada Kedavra_. I am so sorry. You can collect his body for burial from the makeshift morgue at Hogwarts whenever you are ready.”

You thank the man for bringing you the news. What else is there to do? And you shut the door and put your hand on your youngest – now your only – son’s shoulder. And then you sink to the floor and weep, because you don’t _know_ what Avada Kedavra is, and you _can’t_ go to Hogwarts to collect his body. And it’s unfair, so bloody unfair, that now the youngest will have to retrieve his older brother’s body, and you’ll have to bury a child.

And all this pales in comparison to the fact that you still don’t understand _why_ , let alone _who_ or _how_.

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written in 2011 and then I appear to have immediately forgotten about it. I rediscovered it today while going through some files on my old laptop and, upon further reflection, decided I liked it well enough to post it. Happy reading!


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